Praying for genuine spiritual reformation in Nairobi
by preaching the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27)
Precept upon precept, line upon line...
Isaiah 28:10, 13

Saturday, May 26, 2012

BEWARE OF THE DEVIL

Fighting
the Spiritual Battle

1 Peter 5:8-11

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around
like a roaring lion looking for some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your
faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your
brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while,
the God of all grace, who has called you to eternal glory in Christ, will
Himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be the dominion
forever and ever. Amen.

Christian
suffering and persecution because of their faith is normal, going by the many
encouragements in the book of first Peter. Suffering is to be expected looking
at the church history. The time was approaching when Ignatius would anticipate
his death in the Roman Collosseum. Listen to what He said:

Let me be given to the wild
beasts, for through them I can attain unto God. I am God’s wheat, and I am
ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread … come fire
and cross and grapplings with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, hacking of
limbs, crushing of my whole body, come cruel tortures of the devil to assail
me. Only be it mine to attain unto Jesus Christ.

Three very clear instruction are being
given here to Christians:

1.To be sober-minded and watchful (v.8)

2.To resist Him with a firm faith (v.9)

3.God will restore you after you have suffered (10-11)

1.
Be sober-minded -watchful

Christians
are urged in the word of God to be sober-minded or watchful for as long as they
are in this world. The need for watchfulness is very important because of the
enemies who are against us. We have a terrible enemy called the devil. The term
means ‘slanderer’ or ‘false accuser’ as in 1 Tim 3:11; 2 Tim 3:3; Tit. 2:3 and
it is the same word that is applied to Haman when he had false accusations
against the Jews in Est. 8:1 and it is translated n ESV as ‘enemy’.

Who
is the devil? The devil is a spiritual being who is in active rebellion against
God. He also leads many devils like himself who are opposed to God and to his
people.

How exactly does he look like? This
enemy is like a lion, a ferocious animal that can very easily devour anyone by
attacking suddenly, viciously and often when you are not suspecting that that
it is lurking around. The greatest reason for sober-mindedness and watchfulness
is that the danger of being devoured by this enemy is real. This clearly shows
that the devil is not a myth or anything like that. God saying here that the
devil is as real as a lion. It is not to be played around with because just
like lion it can attack and kill you!

Go
through the Bible and particularly in the New Testament and you will find real
influences of the devil. The Psalmist often describes his enemies as lions,
lying in ambush and waiting to pounce on him. There are bizarre and violently
demonic attacks on people that caused them to be so opposed to Christ, His
apostles and to the message of the gospel (Mark 1:24; 5:2-5; 9:18; Acts 16-18;
Rev. 2:10). This manifests in malicious slander and falsehood in speech (John
8:44; 1 John 4:1-3) and sometimes-stubborn propagation of false teaching (1John
4:1-6) there was a tendency to harm themselves (Mark 5:5; 9:20). Some other
times there were sudden and unexplained emotions such, fear hatred, anger,
violence etc.

The
point is that there is terrible evil in the world we live in and most ofit is brought by the devil who is the author
of sin. And we are called to approach these onslaughts against us soberly
knowing that there are devils efforts behind it. We are to beware of the devil
and therefore be watchful in prayer. We are not to yield into sin as a result
of the pressure from the devil or his army of demons. We know that our Lord
triumphed over the devil and his schemes when He cried the cry of victory on
the cross that it is finished. He
disarmed the rulers and authorities (demonic) and put them to public shame by
triumphing over them (Col. 2:15). We should not fear the devil, because he
is defeated. Instead we are to remain sober-minded and watchful. The book of
revelation shows that he is defeated now by Christ by His blood and ultimately
he will be defeated when he will be thrown in the lake of fire forever.We are therefore to rejoice praising the Lord
who has bought us by His blood from the bondage of the enemy.

Sobriety
means that we listen to God rather than the devil. Do not listen to the
falsehood of the devil. Do not accept everything you hear as the truth but make
sure that it is from God. Sobriety means that you are not taken form granted.